The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-12-08
Ne GREAT PANAMA CANAL.
Millions OF Dollars Thrown Away
and Other Millions Lavishly
SUuaudered

To the weary and seasick traveller no
more enchanting scene can be viewed
from the sea than the city of Colon,
with its surroundings Of tall palm trees
waving in the breeze, writes correspon
dent to The New Orleans Times Demo-
crat. 1t seems like glimpse of fairy
land but let the tourist once land, and
he is soon disenchanted The air seems
10 be full Of pestlence, and If Cologne
$ said TO have had seventy distinct
thinks | am sure Colon has atthe least
Tree times as many. In fact, it is
wonder that the inhabitants have not
PAIL of them turned-up noses. The front
: street has planked-over sidewalk
under which the water stands and pu-
lriiies after rainfall. The back streets
of the city are mud holes, and green
scum is Their principal decoration.
The majority of the houses are built
upon sticks. with bed Of streaming
mud beneath to add to their sanitary
advantages. Generally the Panama
Railroad Company run two funeral
trains daily out TO The cemetery at
Monkey Hill, and carry lots of dead
heads"
The funernal ceremonies are conducted
on a most economical plan. poor
man dies in the street. a box is
brought and he is tumbled into it and
whirled away to the place OF sepulture
On arrival the body is pitched into
hole. When there are four or five
bodies in this hole it is closed up. The
boxes are, however, always brought
back for further use. There is no hos
ptal or aid for the sick and destitute.
For the sick man there is no aid, tor the
lead no religious services. 1t is said
that all are not dead who are thrown
INTO these pits. This is immaterial, of
course. rs they soon die after the red
mud is shovelled in upon them. There
are hospitals of course, in Colon, both
, American and French, the latter under
\ the auspices of the canal company,
Aavhose head is M. de Lesseps. | have
PERSONALLY given the French hospital a
trial ofrrarly year and canuOt recon-
mena as q iirst-cess holel POOR cof-
fee and Jougi beef arc not "a ny estim-
alton. most nourshing food Cor an in
valid. These hospitals aie 90 der the
control Of my distinguished end. NJ
: Ne 'Less0ps, but ne never board at them
when le chances o. be 10 lolul. The
Sisters "a Charity nouio wonderland
staff of some educated doctors of
French extraction have the magement
of affairs. The principal medicines
used are compound cathartc pills and
quinine, varied occasionally by fly
blister or an enema. This treatments
Sal 10 vi
dence by the collins going out every day.
In the hospitals. as in every thing else
connected with the DE Lesseps fraud,
the French have preference except in
graveyard privileges. They get chicken,
&c. when an American or Englishman
is given tough beef-the meat cut out
between the horns of bullocks whose
ancestry dates back beyond the reign of
William the Conqueror, who himself is
old enough to be his own grandfather.
cannot afford space to mention all of
the Count de Lesseps's hospital attrac-
xstions for sick Americans. He pays
\ his men of in POGO tempo" silver,
We value of which at the best Of times
is only 60 cents on the dollar American.
That he is striving at all times to replace
skilled American labor by French help
is an open secret. He has promised
several times 10 have the canal opened at
various dates, yet what has he accom-
pished? "0r' Yes, just that much and
no more. He has built lot of fancy
cottages "gimcrack" oncerns-along
the line between Colon and Panama.
He has bought SO much machinery and
never used it, that at least 81, 600, 900
worth of unused material lies along the
Panama Railroad rusting and decaying.
That he has "bg head" an almost
superhuman intellect Suez Canal
shows Yes. he has head for spend
ing money-in the case of the Panama
Canal uselessly, and has VIGOROUSLY
imposed on those who have been weak
enough to trust in his specious promis-
es.
The Panama Canal. or rather 1.-THE
Interoceanique, will be. when COM
pletcd. about fifty-iive miles long So
far about eighteen miles have been
iredged out on the Chagres, and a por-
ton of the mountain at Culebra has
boon blasted out. This is all the work
of contractors, not of the French The
American Dredging Company have
lone their work nobly, while the French
\ dredges have lain idle and rusted along
he shores of the Cbagres. The chief
inn of French employee seems to BIO
drink absinthe. cognac and claret
Md wear a cork hat and top boots.
They are extremely clannish, and view
Americans as an inferior race of ami
mails. The canal company purpose
building Il dam across between two
mountains near Ganboa. This they